Chancellor Philip Hammond visits Dudley and pledges £55m to Black Country to drive 'Midlands Engine'

Just a day after delivering his first budget, Chancellor Philip Hammond outlined his ambitious plans for the region to help drive the Government’s Midlands Engine.

Funding includes £25m to tackle congestion and improve access to major employment sites in the Black Country, and £11m to support investment in high-value manufacturing.

A further £12m will also be pumped in to develop Black Country Garden City, offering new locations for high quality housing development.

Speaking at Dudley College of Technology, Mr Hammond said his introduction of ‘T-Level’ technical qualifications will benefit the region’s array of engineering-based businesses.

(ABOVE: The Chancellor visited the college a day after his budget)

And he hopes his budget announcement, and today’s pledge to drive the local economy forward, will help the Black Country and the Midlands achieve its “incredible potential”.

He told The News: “The Midlands is a hugely important part of the UKs economy, about 13 per cent of our total national product. £10m people with huge potential.

“Birmingham is the home of British engineering and the whole region has incredible potential as Britain engages as a global power in the future.

“What we now need to do is invest in the strengths of the local economy, the traditional strengths here around engineering in particular, embrace in modern technology and move into advanced engineering bringing in the very latest technical skills.

(ABOVE: Chancellor Philip Hammond is given a tour of the college)

“It is about upskilling, investing in our skills. As we sit here in Dudley College of Technology, we can see exactly what that means in practice, young people coming here to learn the skills that will allow local businesses to move forward at the cutting edge of technology and making a huge contribution to the economy.

“The Midlands is one of the key growth points of the UK economy. It has the potential to harness what economists call the agglomeration effect.

“It’s the fact that you’ve got large population centres very close together which you can effectively link together to turn into single markets, that’s what drives economies and really gets economic growth moving.

“We are going to see the benefits straight away in terms of investment in infrastructure projects.

“People will see that in very practical ways, in road improvements to remove congestion at congestion points that hamper businesses from operating efficiently.

(ABOVE: Chancellor Philip Hammond speaks with students)

“The future of the economy of this area depends on taking the traditional businesses this area has been so strong in and making sure that they move with the times and move with the change in technology.

“That means bringing through young people that understand the technologies and have the relevant skills to keep these businesses at the cutting edge as we engage in global economy.”